Student Science - Tech & Mathhttps://student.societyforscience.org/topic/tech-math?mode=topic&context=104
enFeeling the invisiblehttps://student.societyforscience.org/article/feeling-invisible?mode=topic&context=104
<div class="field field-name-field-op-section-term field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/search?mode=topic&amp;context=104&amp;tt=17" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Animals</a>,</div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/topic/tech-math?mode=topic&amp;context=104" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Tech &amp; Math</a>,</div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/search?mode=topic&amp;context=104&amp;tt=78" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Technology &amp; Engineering</a>,</div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/search?mode=topic&amp;context=104&amp;tt=115" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Light &amp; Radiation</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-sn-subtitle">
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<h2>Sensor wired into a rat’s brain lets it detect light it can’t see</h2>
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<div class="views-field views-field-title"> <span class="views-label views-label-title">by</span> <span class="field-content"><a href="/author/sid-perkins?mode=topic&amp;context=104">Sid Perkins</a></span> </div>
<div class="views-field views-field-published-at"> <span class="field-content">5:51pm, February 18, 2013</span> </div> </div>
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<p></p><p><img alt="" src="/sites/student.societyforscience.org/files/main/articles/jr_ratimplant3.jpg" width="600" height="468" class="caption" title=" Researchers trained a rat with an infrared-detecting sensor wired into its brain that it could find water at a door marked with an invisible light. ~~ Thomson et al., Nature Communications (2013)" style="float : none;" /></p>
<p>A sensor wired to a portion of the rat brain that normally processes the sense of touch enabled a group of the laboratory animals to detect a form of light they cannot ordinarily see, scientists say. The new research underscores how adaptable the brain is. It also offers hope that someday people who have suffered severe brain damage or gone blind could regain some lost function.
</p><p>In the experiment, Miguel Nicolelis and his colleagues mounted infrared sensors onto the scalps of rats. As a neuroscientist at Duke University in Durham, N.C., Nicolelis studies the brain and nervous system. Using tiny wires, his team recently connected the detectors to that part of the rat brain that normally interprets signals coming from the whiskers. The connection allowed the rats to sense the infrared light picked up by the detectors.
</p><p>Normally, rats cannot see in the infrared. Infrared is just one form of electromagnetic radiation. X rays, radio waves and visible light are some other forms. The eyes of humans, rats and most other mammals can see only visible light, or the colors red through violet. Other colors along the electromagnetic spectrum are invisible to them. These include ultraviolet (ultra in Latin means “beyond”) and infrared (infra in Latin means “below”).
</p><p>While most mammals cannot see in the infrared, scientists have designed electronic sensors that can. In fact, you probably use an infrared sensor or two every day. Televisions and DVD players use such detectors to receive infrared signals from remote controls.
</p><p>The new experiment used similar sensors to let rats “see” infrared light too. Of course, their eyes remained blind to infrared light. So Nicolelis and his team bypassed their eyes. The researchers designed the experiment to see if the rats could use an area of their brain normally used in decoding touch signals to understand light signals. In the end, the rats learned how to “feel” infrared light.
</p><p>Here is how: First, the team placed rats fitted with the infrared implants in a round chamber, roughly 1 meter (3 feet) in diameter. The chamber had several small holes in its circular wall. A light was next to each hole. In the beginning, the rats learned to access a water bottle through one of the holes. Researchers then started turning on the light outside the hole where water was available. (At the other holes, where there was no water, the light remained off.) Eventually the rats learned that a light signaled that water was available at a particular hole. Then the researchers changed the signal. Now they turned on an infrared light next to the hole where water was available.
</p><p>Again, the rats could not detect this signal with their eyes. However, the infrared sensor could detect it. The detector passed along that information to the brains of the rats.
</p><p>At first, the rats seemed confused whenever the sensors on their heads detected infrared light, says Nicolelis. “They rubbed their faces and cleaned their whiskers a lot,” he says. “This was a new sensation for them. In a sense, these rats were ‘feeling’ the light, not seeing it,” he explains.
</p><p>Soon the rats learned to separate the sensations. Some came from the infrared sensors. Other were delivered by their whiskers. Before long, the rats started scanning their heads back and forth. That allowed the sensor to “look” for the infrared light that marked the hole with water. After 26 days, all six rats fitted with infrared sensors could find water more than 70 percent of the time. Over time, their success rate climbed to more than 90 percent. Nicolelis described his team’s experiments Feb. 17 at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Boston. The scientists also reported their results earlier in the week in <em>Nature Communications</em>.
</p><p>The team’s experiment was designed to demonstrate the plasticity of brain function. “Plastic” in this sense means reshapable or adaptable. So the idea is that a part of the brain may be able to stretch its normal function to include new tasks. In this experiment, groups of nerves that normally decode one type of signal (touch) could learn to do the same with another (sight).
</p><p>“This is a fascinating result,” says Todd Coleman. He’s a neuroscientist at the University of California, San Diego. “This study demonstrates just how adaptable the brain is,” he explains. It also suggests that researchers might one day help people whose brains have suffered damage through injury or disease. It would work by partially re-training one portion of the brain to do the work a damaged portion once did.
</p><p>Taking advantage of the brain’s capacity to rewire itself wouldn’t fully restore a lost sense, Nicolelis cautions. For instance, a person who became blind might receive an implant that restored limited vision. The patient wouldn’t be able to see objects in great detail, only distinguish vague shapes.
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</p><p><span><strong>Power Words</strong></span>
</p><p><strong>electromagnetic radiation</strong> Forms of light. Electromagnetic radiation is typically classified by its wavelength. The spectrum of electromagnetic radiation ranges from radio waves to gamma rays. It also includes microwaves and visible light.
</p><p><strong>infrared light</strong> A type of electromagnetic radiation invisible to the human eye. The name incorporates a Latin term and means “below red.” Infrared light has wavelengths longer than those visible to humans. Other invisible wavelengths include X rays, radio waves and microwaves.
</p><p><strong>neuroscientist</strong> A researcher who studies the nervous system of animals, including the brain.
</p><p><strong>plasticity</strong> Plastic means adaptable or reshapable. Here, it refers to the ability of the brain to stretch its normal function or abilities. This might include the brain’s ability to rewire itself to recover some lost functions and compensate for damage.</p></div></div></div><span property="rnews:name schema:name" content="Feeling the invisible" class="rdf-meta"></span>Mon, 18 Feb 2013 22:51:45 +0000k@email.com1254 at https://student.societyforscience.orgYour head's battery https://student.societyforscience.org/article/your-heads-battery?mode=topic&context=104
<div class="field field-name-field-op-section-term field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/search?mode=topic&amp;context=104&amp;tt=38" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Computers &amp; Electronics</a>,</div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/topic/tech-math?mode=topic&amp;context=104" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Tech &amp; Math</a>,</div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/search?mode=topic&amp;context=104&amp;tt=78" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Technology &amp; Engineering</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-sn-subtitle">
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<h2>Fluids in the inner ear can actually power an electronic device, such as an implant</h2>
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<div class="views-field views-field-title"> <span class="views-label views-label-title">by</span> <span class="field-content"><a href="/author/sid-perkins?mode=topic&amp;context=104">Sid Perkins</a></span> </div>
<div class="views-field views-field-published-at"> <span class="field-content">12:03pm, January 17, 2013</span> </div> </div>
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<p><img alt="Scientists have designed a small electronic circuit (inside the two golden squares) that can monitor the strength of the natural battery in a guinea pig’s inner ear. The tiny device had to collect energy from the ear’s battery and then store it until there was enough power to transmit data to doctors. Credit: Mercier et al. (2012), Nature Biotechnology" src="/sites/student.societyforscience.org/files/main/articles/ChipOnFinger_crop_noAnnotations.jpg" width="600" height="636" class="caption" title=" Scientists have designed a small electronic circuit (inside the two golden squares) that can monitor the strength of the natural battery in a guinea pig’s inner ear. The tiny device had to collect energy from the ear’s battery and then store it until there was enough power to transmit data to doctors. ~~ Mercier et al. (2012), Nature Biotechnology" style="float : none;" /></p>
<p>A natural powerhouse in the ear of guinea pigs can run a tiny electronic device, researchers show. Human ears contain that same structure, which operates like a battery. Doctors might one day use this system to power implants. Some might monitor an individual’s blood. Others could dispense medicines.
</p><p>Deep within the ear of all mammals is a spiral-shaped structure called a cochlea (KOKE lee ah). It contains two storage regions, each filled with a different liquid. One fluid contains dissolved minerals, such as potassium, in concentrations close to those found in blood. The other fluid contains a higher proportion of potassium.
</p><p>A thin membrane separates the two chambers. Cells in that membrane continually pump potassium from one chamber into the other. The difference in potassium concentrations between the chambers creates a small voltage difference. Voltage is a measure of how much energy it takes to move charged particles between two points, or how much energy can be extracted from those moving particles. In the cochlea, this voltage difference normally drives signals that carry sound information along a nerve going to the brain.
</p><p>Importantly, there is always a voltage difference between the cochlea’s fluid chambers. So it’s like a battery that never loses its charge, explains Anantha Chandrakasan. He’s an electrical engineer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
</p><p>He and his coworkers designed a tiny device to measure changes in the strength of the ear’s natural battery. Periodically, the device would then wirelessly transmit the data it had collected.
</p><p>That battery had to power those transmissions. But the ear’s natural battery is far less powerful than those used to run watches or calculators. So circuits in this device had to be very efficient.
</p><p>To tap into the ear’s natural battery, the researchers attached electrodes. One penetrated each chamber of the cochlea. These electrodes had to be very small and provide little resistance to the flow of electricity.
</p><p>Konstantina Stankovic, an ear surgeon at Harvard Medical School, led a team that implanted those electrodes. Wires connected them to the new device — a computer chip similar to those found in many types of electronics. That chip was small enough to fit on a fingertip. For these early tests, the device itself remained outside the guinea pig’s ear.
</p><p>The tiny device had to collect energy from the ear’s battery and then store it until there was enough power to transmit data. The researchers provided the test device with enough starting energy to operate only about 6 minutes. In fact, the device operated for up to 5 straight hours. That shows the device succeeded in pulling power from the ear’s natural battery. The device derived enough power to send data every 40 seconds to 6 minutes. The researchers described their findings online November 11 in <i>Nature Biotechnology</i>.
</p><p>Overall, the cochlea’s battery provided a little more than 1 nanowatt of power. That’s less than one-billionth as much as would be needed to run a faint nightlight. But the device didn’t interfere with hearing.
</p><p>Future versions could be implanted inside the body near the ear, Chandrakasan says. There it might do things such as monitor chemicals in the blood — blood sugar or cholesterol, for example. Alternatively, a tiny ear-powered device might occasionally release small amounts of some medicine into the bloodstream or into tissues near the ear. For such tasks, researchers will need to improve the electrodes and device’s circuitry, Chandrakasan says.
</p><p>Researchers are just beginning to find ways to capture, store and use the body’s energy in unusual ways. For example, scientists have designed backpacks that can <a href="/node/837">harvest the energy</a> of a person walking to power a variety of devices. The new ear battery testing “shows you can do neat stuff,” says Gene Frantz. He’s an electrical engineer at Texas Instruments in Dallas.
</p><p>But before researchers design implants with complicated circuits to perform many tasks, Frantz says they should ask themselves: “How do I build a circuit that does only what’s necessary?” This, he says, might allow scientists to design small devices that won’t need more power than the tiny amounts of energy that an ear’s microbattery can provide.
</p><p><span><b>Power Words:</b></span>
</p><p><b>auditory nerve</b> The nerve that carries electrical signals that represent sound from the ear to the brain.
</p><p><b>battery </b>A device that can convert chemical energy into electrical energy.
</p><p><b>cochlea </b>A spiral-shaped structure in the inner ear of humans and other mammals. The natural battery in the mammalian inner ear provides power to drive signals from the ear to the brain. Those signals travel along the auditory nerve.
</p><p><b>current </b>The flow of electrical charges through a wire or other electrical conductor. <b> </b>
</p><p><b>electrical engineer </b>A researcher who uses the principles of electricity, electronics and electromagnetism to design or analyze devices that transmit or use electrical power. Examples include computers, radios and electrical circuits.
</p><p><b>implant </b>A device manufactured to replace a missing biological structure, to support a damaged biological structure, or to enhance an existing biological structure. Examples include artificial hips and knees, pacemakers, and the insulin pumps used to treat diabetes.
</p><p><b>power </b>The energy used to run machines or devices, and is typically measured in watts.
</p><p><b>voltage </b>The difference in electrical potential between one point and another — say, for instance, one end of a battery and the other. Electrical potential measures the amount of energy needed to move a charged particle from one spot to another.</p>
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<div class="field-label">Further Reading</div>
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<p>E. Sohn. 2005. “<a href="/node/837">Electric backpack</a>.” <i>Science News for Kids</i>. Sept. 30, 2005.</p>
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</div><span property="rnews:name schema:name" content="Your head&#039;s battery " class="rdf-meta"></span>Thu, 17 Jan 2013 17:03:47 +0000k@email.com1251 at https://student.societyforscience.orgRoll, robot, rollhttps://student.societyforscience.org/article/roll-robot-roll?mode=topic&context=104
<div class="field field-name-field-op-section-term field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/topic/tech-math?mode=topic&amp;context=104" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Tech &amp; Math</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-sn-subtitle">
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<h2>Caterpillars inspire researchers to build a robot that rolls to safety</h2>
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<div class="views-field views-field-title"> <span class="views-label views-label-title">by</span> <span class="field-content"><a href="/author/stephen-ornes?mode=topic&amp;context=104">Stephen Ornes</a></span> </div>
<div class="views-field views-field-published-at"> <span class="field-content">5:28pm, May 18, 2011</span> </div> </div>
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<p></p><p><img class="caption" title="Caterpillar" src="/sites/student.societyforscience.org/files/main/articles/caterpillar1-300x210.jpg" alt="The GoQBot quickly curls up and rolls away, imitating real caterpillars. " width="300" height="210" style="float : right;" /></p>
<p>There’s no such thing as a natural robot. Robots aren’t alive, they don’t grow, and they need people and technology to get around. But engineers, the human inventors of these machines, don’t ignore nature. In fact, these researchers are often inspired by natural events. Many clever gadgets and devices imitate the workings of nature.
</p><p>The inventors of a new robot called GoQBot drew inspiration from caterpillars. To escape predators or other dangerous situations, some caterpillars curl into a hoop and roll away. They do this trick in a split second and make a fast getaway — reaching speeds of nearly 8 inches per second. That’s one of the fastest known wheeling motions in nature, say GoQBot’s inventors.
</p><p>“You poke the animal and you don’t know where it’s gone,” Huai-Ti Lin told <em>Science News</em>. “It’s wicked fast.” Lin invented GoQBot while working on his Ph.D. in biology at Tufts University in Medford, Mass. He is now a researcher at Harvard University.
</p><p>On the outside, Lin’s GoQBot looks a lot like a large caterpillar. It’s light green and just under four inches long. On the inside, however, GoQBot looks less like its inspiration. A caterpillar’s segmented body contains intestines and other small organs. GoQBot is made of a rubbery material called silicone and has metal coils inside.
</p><p>When electrical currents travel through those metal coils, GoQBot snaps into action. Like its caterpillar counterpart, the robot rolls up and races away. Satyandra Gupta told <em>Science News</em> that robots that crawl on many legs are slowed down because they have so many joints. (Joints are spots where different parts come together, like people’s knees.) A robot that rolls, on the other hand, can reach high speeds quickly. Gupta, who did not work on GoQBot, is the director of the Maryland Robotics Center at the University of Maryland in College Park.
</p><p>“Once you get into a ball and rolling, you get dramatic increases in speed,” Gupta told <em>Science News</em>. “This is an exciting development.”
</p><p>The new robot is an example of biomimetic technology, which includes devices that imitate, or mimic, something in nature. Lin told <em>Science News </em>he invented GoQBot to better understand how caterpillars move. In a recent study, he and his colleagues report that they’ve already started to learn about the bugs’ ability to roll. They’ve also estimated how much power a caterpillar needs to perform the maneuver.
</p><p>But there’s one way in which GoQBot is decidedly not like a caterpillar. No matter how much current Lin and his colleagues pump through the coils, the GoQBot will never morph into a butterfly.
</p><p><br /></p><p><iframe width="425" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/wZe9qWi-LUo" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</p><p><br /></p><p><iframe width="425" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/cqt4EIQRwxk" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</p><p>POWER WORDS (adapted from the Oxford New American Dictionary)
</p><p><strong>biomimetics </strong>Artificial methods of design or construction that mimic biochemical processes.
</p><p><strong>robot </strong>A machine capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically, especially one programmable by a computer.
</p><p><strong>biology </strong>The study of living things.
</p><p><strong>silicone </strong>Polymers that have a chemical structure based on chains of alternate silicon and oxygen atoms, with carbon-containing groups attached to the silicon atoms.
</p><p><strong>polymer </strong>A material that’s made of a long string of similar molecules bonded together.</p></div></div></div><div class="field-group-format group_article_information field-group-div group-article-information clearfix speed-fast effect-none"><div class="field field-name-field-article-reading field-type-text-long field-label-above">
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<p>FURTHER READING R. Ehrenberg. “<a href="http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/73596/title/Robot_based_on_cartwheeling_caterpillars">Robot based on cartwheeling caterpillars</a>.” <em>Science News</em>. April 26, 2011. Keep up with Huai-Ti Lin’s work by reading <a href="http://morphingmorphology.blogspot.com/2010/04/for-those-who-track-3d.html">his research blog</a>.<a href="http://morphingmorphology.blogspot.com/2010/04/for-those-who-track-3d.html"></a> T. Ghose. “<a href="/node/1290">Caterpillars tattletale to police</a>.” <em>Science News for Kids</em>. Dec. 10, 2008.</p>
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</div><span property="rnews:name schema:name" content="Roll, robot, roll" class="rdf-meta"></span>Wed, 18 May 2011 21:28:02 +0000email@email.com252 at https://student.societyforscience.orgCell phones on the brainhttps://student.societyforscience.org/article/cell-phones-brain?mode=topic&context=104
<div class="field field-name-field-op-section-term field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/topic/tech-math?mode=topic&amp;context=104" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Tech &amp; Math</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-sn-subtitle">
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<h2>When an active cell phone is pressed against the ear, the brain gets busier</h2>
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<div class="views-field views-field-title"> <span class="views-label views-label-title">by</span> <span class="field-content"><a href="/author/stephen-ornes?mode=topic&amp;context=104">Stephen Ornes</a></span> </div>
<div class="views-field views-field-published-at"> <span class="field-content">1:51pm, April 7, 2011</span> </div> </div>
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<em>When an active cell phone is pressed against the ear, the brain gets busier.</em>
<p>Here’s one number to keep in mind during your next cell phone conversation: 50. A new experiment shows that spending 50 minutes with an active phone pressed up to the ear increases activity in the brain. This brain activity probably doesn't make you smarter. When cell phones are on, they emit energy in the form of radiation that could be harmful, especially after years of cell phone usage. Scientists don't know yet whether cell phones are bad for the brain. Studies like this one are attempting to find out.
</p><p>“The human brain is sensitive to the electromagnetic radiation that is emitted from cell phones,” Nora Volkow told <em>Science News</em>. Volkow, who worked on a study that found the connection with brain activity, is a researcher and doctor at the National Institute on Drug Abuse in Bethesda, Md.
</p><p></p><p><img class="caption" title="Cell Phones on the Brain. Credit Shutterstock" src="/sites/student.societyforscience.org/files/main/articles/mathtech_1_cellphonebrain-300x136.jpg" alt="Cell Phones on the Brain. Credit Shutterstock" width="300" height="136" style="float : left;" /></p>
<p>The radiation emitted by a cell phone is different from the types in X-rays and nuclear power plants. All of these kinds of radiation are energy, but cell phone radiation is not radioactive. So it affects the body, but not by being radioactive.
</p><p>The 47 participants in the experiment may have looked a little strange. Each one had two Samsung cell phones strapped to his or her head — one on each ear. The phone on the left ear was off. The phone on the right ear played a message for 50 minutes, but the participants couldn't hear it because the sound was off.
</p><p>With this set-up, the scientists could be sure they were studying brain activity from the phone itself, and not brain activity due to listening and talking during a conversation. After 50 minutes with two phones strapped to their heads, the participants were given PET scans.
</p><p>A PET scan is a way to see what's going on inside the body. It’s like the opposite of an X-Ray: A person is injected with a chemical that produces radiation. That chemical goes to the part of the body that the scientists want to study. There, the radiation acts like light: it’s absorbed in some places, passed on in others, and reflected in others. By studying those patterns, the scientists can see what’s happening inside the body.<a><img class="alignright size-medium wp-image-2289" title="Snap2_030911_img2" src="/sites/student.societyforscience.org/files/main/articles/Snap2_030911_img2-300x201.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="201" /></a>
</p><p>The PET scan showed that the left side (the side with the phone turned off) of each participant's brain hadn't changed from the way it was before the experiment. The right side of the brain, however, had used more glucose, which is a type of sugar that provides fuel to brain cells. These right-side brain cells were using almost as much glucose as the brain uses when a person is talking. This suggests that the brain cells there were active ― even without the person hearing anything. That activity, the scientists say, was probably triggered by radiation from the phone.
</p><p>Cell phones do not always emit the same amount of energy. They release different amounts of radiation depending on whether a person is talking or listening, the type of phone, the number of people using phones nearby, and the distance to the nearest cell phone tower. All of these changes make it difficult to collect evidence about any health risks of cell phones, since exposure to radiation can vary.
</p><p>But Henry Lai, who works at the University of Washington in Seattle, is uncomfortable with the data emerging on cell phones. Holding a cell phone to your ear during a conversation is “not really safe,” Lai told Science News. Lai is a bioengineer at the University of Washington in Seattle. He wrote an article about the study for a journal, but he did not work on the new study. Bioengineers bring together ideas from engineering and biology.
</p><p>For those who don't want to wait to find out for sure whether cell phones are bad for the brain, there are ways to talk more safely. You can have short and sweet conversations, use a speakerphone or keep the phone away from your head.
</p><p>“In my case, I don’t like my brain to be stimulated by anything that is not physiological,” Volkow told <em>Science News</em>. “There are very easy solutions that don’t cost anything for those who want to play it safe.”
</p><p><strong>POWER WORDS</strong> (adapted from the New Oxford American Dictionary)
</p><p><strong>physiological</strong> Having to do with the functioning of living organisms.
</p><p><strong>glucose</strong> A simple sugar that is an important source of energy for living things. Glucose is the main fuel used by brain cells.
</p><p><strong>PET scan</strong> A way to take a three-dimensional picture of how the inside of the body does work. A person is injected with a substance that produces radiation. A scanner records the radiation as it leaves the body, using those measurements to create the picture.
</p><p><strong>radiation</strong> Energy that is carried by waves through space. Heat, light, electricity and streams of radioactive particles are all forms of radiation.
</p><p><strong>bioengineering</strong> The use of ideas from physics and engineering to solve problems in biology, which is the study of living things.</p></div></div></div><div class="field-group-format group_article_information field-group-div group-article-information clearfix speed-fast effect-none"><div class="field field-name-field-article-reading field-type-text-long field-label-above">
<div class="field-label">Further Reading</div>
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<ul><li>L. Sanders, <a href="http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/70134/title/Cell_phones_may_affect_brain_metabolism" target="_blank">“Cell Phones May Affect Brain Metabolism,”</a> Science News, February 22, 2011.</li>
<li>S. Ornes, <a href="/articles/20091007/Note2.asp" target="_blank">“Are cell phones safe?”</a> Science News for Kids, October 7, 2009.</li>
<li>E. Sohn, <a href="/articles/20070425/Note3.asp" target="_blank">“Sugar power for cell phones,”</a> Science News for Kids, April 25, 2007.</li>
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</div><span property="rnews:name schema:name" content="Cell phones on the brain" class="rdf-meta"></span>Thu, 07 Apr 2011 17:51:49 +0000email@email.com128 at https://student.societyforscience.orgAre cell phones safe? https://student.societyforscience.org/article/are-cell-phones-safe?mode=topic&context=104
<div class="field field-name-field-op-section-term field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/topic/tech-math?mode=topic&amp;context=104" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Tech &amp; Math</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-sn-subtitle">
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<h2>Be smart about using a cell phone</h2>
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<div class="views-field views-field-title"> <span class="views-label views-label-title">by</span> <span class="field-content"><a href="/author/stephen-ornes?mode=topic&amp;context=104">Stephen Ornes</a></span> </div>
<div class="views-field views-field-published-at"> <span class="field-content">3:31pm, October 8, 2009</span> </div> </div>
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<p></p><p><img class="caption" title="Too_close _" src="/sites/student.societyforscience.org/files/main/articles/Too_close-_-300x198.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="198" style="float : right;" /></p>
<p>About 4 billion people use cell phones, but are they safe? Keep listening—scientists around the world are exploring this question right now. In the meantime, governments are suggesting that people try to limit exposure to radiation from the devices. “Better safe than sorry,” says <a href="http://www.gertnerinst.org.il/e/epidemiology_e/cancer_e/" target="_blank">Siegal Sadetzki</a>, a physician in Israel who studies the health risks of cell phones.
</p><p>Cell phone users can cut down on radiation exposure by only using the phone when the signal is strong. Another way to reduce exposure is to keep some distance between the phone and the ear.
</p><p>The phones work by changing the sound of your voice into a radio wave, which it then sends out through an antenna. The phone uses the antenna to receive radio waves, which it then changes into sound waves that a user can hear. These radio waves are a form of radiation, which may be absorbed by tissues in a user’s head, if the phone is close enough.
</p><p>Most of the scientists who are studying the health effects of cell phones are working in countries other than the United States, but that may change. The United States Senate has recently begun to investigate American research—which may affect 270 million users in the U.S.
</p><p>Right now, evidence from scientific studies around the world is not strong enough to show a link between cell phone use and disease.
</p><p>“The currently available scientific evidence about the effects of radiation emitted by mobile phones is contradictory,” says Dariusz Leszczynski, a scientist at Finland’s Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority, in Helsinki. “There are both studies showing effects and some studies showing no effect.”
</p><p>If scientists were able to show a link, then cell phones would be sold with a warning label. Scientists like Leszczynski, however, think it’s unwise to think of cell phones as 100 percent safe. Instead, he and his organization recommend that children not use cell phones because the radiation can reach further into their brains than it does into the heads of adults. They also recommend texting rather than talking—to keep the phone away from the head.
</p><p>In France, the health ministry has been making similar suggestions to keep children off the cell phone. In Israeli, the government recommends that people use speakers or other hands-free devices to keep the phone away from the head. The Environmental Working Group, an advocacy organization in the United States, recommends that people buy low-radiation phones.
</p><p>Some scientific studies do suggest a link between health problems and cell phone use. Last year, Sadetzki and her group found that heavy cell phone users had a 50 to 60 percent increased risk of a certain type of tumor. Sadetzi says that one reason studies may now be showing risk is that widespread use of cell phones didn’t begin until about 15 years ago. And it may take decades for disease to develop.
</p><p>She says cell phones are here to stay, but “the question that needs to be answered is not whether we should use cell phones, but how.”
</p><p>POWER WORDS
</p><p><strong>radiation </strong>The process of emitting energy in the form of electromagnetic waves
</p><p><strong>antenna </strong>A transmitter or receiver of electromagnetic energy, especially microwaves or radio waves.
</p><p><strong>radio waves </strong>An electromagnetic wave within the range of radio frequencies.</p></div></div></div><span property="rnews:name schema:name" content="Are cell phones safe? " class="rdf-meta"></span>Thu, 08 Oct 2009 19:31:33 +0000email@email.com294 at https://student.societyforscience.orgTroubles with Hubblehttps://student.societyforscience.org/article/troubles-hubble?mode=topic&context=104
<div class="field field-name-field-op-section-term field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/search?mode=topic&amp;context=104&amp;tt=38" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Computers &amp; Electronics</a>,</div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/topic/tech-math?mode=topic&amp;context=104" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Tech &amp; Math</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-sn-subtitle">
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<h2>Just before a planned repair mission, the space telescope went quiet</h2>
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<div class="views-field views-field-published-at"> <span class="field-content">12:00am, October 14, 2008</span> </div> </div>
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<p>If your family car breaks down on the road, a roadside assistance crew will be sent immediately to make repairs. But how do you tackle emergency repairs on an orbiting space telescope hundreds of miles from Earth?
</p><p>That’s a problem that some NASA engineers are now working to solve.
</p><p>After 18 years of capturing images of nearby galaxies and newborn stars, the hard-working Hubble Space Telescope mysteriously stopped sending data in late September.
</p><p>The timing of the failure was unfortunate. It occurred just weeks before a shuttle mission to upgrade the aging space telescope was scheduled to blast off. That mission is now on hold until early next year while NASA engineers find ways to address the telescope’s recent problem.
</p><p></p><p><img class="caption" title="Working in an underwater tank that mimics the feeling of weightlessness in space, astronaut Drew Feustel practices using a power screwdriver specially designed for Hubble repair." src="/sites/student.societyforscience.org/files/main/articles/old-SNK-Hubble-credit-JSC-NASA-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" style="float : right;" /></p>
<p>The problem stems from a failure inside a data formatting unit, a device designed to receive scientific data from the telescope's five main instruments and transmit this data to Earth. Without this unit, the Hubble is unable to capture and beam down information that is needed to produce the telescope’s breath-taking deep space images.
</p><p>NASA was prepared for such an emergency, though, and had stowed a copy of the formatting unit onboard. However, immediately switching over to this backup unit could create new problems, says Preston Burch, Hubble manager at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.
</p><p>For starters, the switchover would require engineers to electronically reconnect all five main instruments. The change might also blow a fuse or cause additional failures for Hubble.
</p><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="1" align="center"><tbody><tr><td><img src="/sites/student.societyforscience.org/files/main/articles/a1772_2593.jpg" border="0" alt="At NASA's Johnson Space Center, astronauts practice repairs on an underwater, life-size replica of the Hubble Space Telescope." /></td>
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<p><em>At NASA's Johnson Space Center, astronauts practice repairs on an underwater, life-size replica of the Hubble Space Telescope.</em></p>
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</tr></tbody></table><p>Instead, the Earth-bound engineers plan to tackle the job slowly. The first step, says Burch, is to practice making the switch on a replica of the Hubble system located on the ground at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.
</p><p>If all goes well on Earth, the engineers will then attempt to switch to the duplicate unit onboard the real Hubble in space. But even if it works, the switch to the duplicate system would be a short-term solution, Burch says.
</p><p>To ensure that Hubble keeps going as long as possible, NASA plans to send some “roadside assistance” to space.
</p><p>Astronauts may carry a duplicate data formatting unit into space when the recently delayed servicing mission launches next year. By replacing the failed data formatting unit with a new gadget, a spare unit could remain on Hubble in case of another failure, Burch says.
</p><p>Still, this is no ordinary emergency repair job. The astronauts will have to replace the unit during a two-hour spacewalk 612 kilometers (380 miles) above Earth.
</p><p><strong>Going Deeper: </strong></p></div></div></div><span property="rnews:name schema:name" content="Troubles with Hubble" class="rdf-meta"></span>Tue, 14 Oct 2008 04:00:00 +0000ab@email.com1342 at https://student.societyforscience.org